– By Kinsey Gidick –
If you do one thing with your family in Turks & Caicos, make it the Turks Clear Boat Experience. It’s “turtle-y” worth it!
I’ve done my time wandering through plenty of aquariums. Frequent visits are pretty much a requirement for anyone with children. We did most of our sea life viewing at the Charleston South Carolina Aquarium where we lived up until my son was five. The modestly sized institution did a great job of exposing my budding marine enthusiasts to the fish species of our region — sharks, starfish, grouper, and flounder. But far and away his favorite exhibit was the Sea Turtle Care Center, one of the southeast’s leading resources for sick and injured leatherbacks, loggerheads, and Kemp’s ridley turtles. Naturally, when we visited Beaches Resort on Turks & Caicos in January, a chance to see sea turtles was high on my son’s list. But given the vehicle for the endeavor, Turks Tour Company’s clear boat experience in Providenciales, my expectations were low. Would it really be all that clear? Luckily, those crafty reptiles and our savvy crew surprised us.
Built entirely of acrylic — yes, just like fake nails — a glass boat is exactly as it sounds: a see-through vessel. That means that not only is the bottom under your feet crystal clear, so is the bow and the stern and the seats. You get the idea. You can see everything!
As we pulled away from Turtle Cove Marina, we got our first peak of the water world below. Flowing whisps of seagrass waved in our wake. As we exited the cove and into open water, the view evolved, opening up to stunning white sand. “Hm,” I thought. “Guess we’ll just be looking at the empty sea. Oh well.” And that’s when I heard my son shout, “Mom! Look! A turtle.”
I hopped off my seat and sat on the hull and there below us I saw the most beautiful sight, a large sea turtle gently paddling his way above the sandy ocean floor. It is one thing to look through aquarium glass at a manufactured turtle habitat. It is quite another to see them in their actual home. Even if that had been the only sea life we spotted, I would have left the journey happy, but to my surprise, it was just the start.
Turks Tour Company takes guests out to Smith Reef, a favorite snorkeling site minutes from some of the islands’ finest resorts and the famous Grace Bay. This protected environment has a colorful array of fish including filefish, spiny lobsters, sea fans, and sponges, blue tang, and small squids. What I thought would be a relaxed ride quickly became a game of “I Spy.” Our helpful guides knew just where to go to find the most action. But what they really had mastered was eyeing sea turtles.
“There’s one on the surface grabbing air,” our guide Marco called as we bounced along a choppy wave. Sure enough, off the port bow, we spotted the signature shell as it dipped below.
“And there’s another one,” my son kept saying. This little guy had a curious look, a big chunk of his back was missing. “It looks like something took a bite out of him,” my son said. “It did,” Mario answered. Turns out, while it’s rare to see any sharks in the reef itself, when turtles venture out they can often find themselves prey, the regrettable scenario for this little guy. But even with his scar, he seemed to paddle along unbothered, a resilient survivor of the sea.
By the end of our excursion, we had spotted no fewer than 16 sea turtles, each one a thrilling discovery that reminded us of the beauty and fragility of marine life—a memory we’ll carry long after our footprints in Turks & Caicos sand have washed away.
Happy smiles all day after the Turks Clear Boat Experience
Kinsey Gidick is a professional travel writer based in central Virginia. She’s been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Travel + Leisure, Garden & Gun, Fodor’s, BBC, and USA Today, among others. Her work can be found at KinseyGidick.com.